CHEAP ELECTRIC POWER.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCVIII, Issue 18084, 23 June 1924, Page 6

CHEAP ELECTRIC POWER.

WHAT IT MIGHT MEAN FOR SOUTH CANTERBURY.

ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIES

Interviewed by a “Herald” reporter, with reference to his remarks at the public meeting on June 12, on the subject of the improvement of the soil and possible remedies, Mr A. M. Paterson, M.K.C.V.S., said he had been invited to attend the meeting, not so much for the purpose of advocating any particular hydroelectric scheme, as to repeat something he had told the pupils at the farm school recently held in Timaru.

He had stated on that occasion that the agriculture of South Canterbury might be greatly improved by the establishment of two new and necessary industries, natural to the district; that both were dependent on a continuous and reliable supply of cheappporer,w r er, and that such power was lying right at our own door waiting to be put to profitable use. He had urged them to associate in their minds these two industries with any hydro-electrical scheme, which they thougnt of supporting. New-' Zealand, proceeded Mr Paterson, was 90 per cent, a farm; most of the townspeople were therefore, in a sense, only helpers of one kind and another, on that farm; and it was to their interest to see that the fertility of the farm was not only maintained, but improved and developed to the highest possible degree. IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SOIL. “Being thus vitally interested and wholly dependent on the success and prosperity of agriculture, townspeople should acquaint themselves more than they do with all that goes on in the rural districts, and with all that is happening to the soil, on which our very existence depends,” said Mr Paterson. “They should know, and thoroughly realise, that for many decades w r e have been sending away year after year millions of carcases of mutton, thousands of bales of wool, and tons of cheese, an enormous drain on the fertility or our soil. They should also know that unless the soil elements which go to the making of the bony skeletons of our animals, and the mutton, wool and cheese, v r hich we remove from the farm, are returned again to the soil, the fertility of that soil will soon become exhausted. They should know, too, that those elements are not being returned to the soil, and that as a consequence soil fertility is year by year lowering, while land values are as steadily soaring, a double process which if allowed to go on very much longer will lead to general agricultural bankruptcy.

THE REMEDY. “Two of the chief elements essential to soil fertility, which have been withdrawn from the soil, are lime and nitrogen; and the two iadustiies which I have referred to are. .concerned with the supply of thege elements. - . r , “We have in South Canterbury deposits of: the. richest quality ot lime, and I suggest the exploitation ana pulverisation of these in order to make agricultural lime conveniently available for the farmers, and this cou.d be done if we had cheap power, tor want of lime in the soil it is becoming increasingly difficult for farmers to raise, payable crops, and to maintain their stock in that state of robust health, which they enjoyed before the soil became impoverished.” . 1 With cheap lime and nitrogen, said Mr Paterson,, the farmer _ might bo enabled to grow wheat profitably; and bv producing more nutritious food plants for their stock their animals would he healthier, and would come earlier to maturity; and early maturity meant that more animals could be fattened in a given period than wen; being fattened now.

ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN. 4 method of replenishing the nitrogen of the soil is practised in various parts at the world, notably m Scandinavia. Germany, Canaan, and Uio United States, explained Mr Paterson, it depended on the fact that nitrogen comprised four-fifths of the atmosphere., that it could be fixed chemioUv to lime, forming the nitrate of ’iinc, which could he conveniently Lrihuieel to farmers. To make the-,o litrntos, electrical plants were required; and in Germany the current to drive them was supplied at l£d per unit, and in some cases at less than -veil that extremely low figure. “These two industries, I am convinccl, would transform our agriculture in this district, and make the . life o! hose on the land something like what ’i ought to he in a country which we pride ourselves in calling ‘Gods wc.’ " said the speaker.

CEMENT AND CONCRETE BRICES

'ldiai other industries. aiso new. neeossarv, and natural to the district, were suggested by Mr Paterson, which could be’ established if reasonably cheap power was available. Ibo first, was the manufacture of cement, wlin n was made from lime and marl. South Canterbury had the lime, and the mar! could he obtained. so ihat all that ,vas needl'd for the oßablishmont of this industry was cheap and reliable Dower.

The second general industry was the manufacture of eoneiete products. An eminent engineer .had recently said

that Jium had passed through a slo:;>: ■igo. a liroiKK ago, and an iron ago. and was now passing to a concrete age. ‘MI so happens.” proceeded 3.K ikiter.-m, ‘Mint "c in this district, iiave one of i.he- iino.A depodls oi liis’ very host sand and shingle for tin manufacture oi concrete, to he tone.-1 in the whole of Australasia. All wc need 10 do is to bring our cement into coni nnet ton with this smiti and shingle at a concrete products factory, in the vicinitv of fhnithficld or on the site at Wash dyke, laid aside for a new f rename' work's, and we could supply the whole district with concrete building bricks, eoncreie roofing tiles, paving slabs, and many other useful and ornamental coticreio articles besides. An electrieally-driven machine lias been in existence for a number ol years past, which automatically makes immense qa nut i tics of bricks, each with a coloured and enamelled surface. The machine is fed at one point with the concrete materials, and at another with the enamelling material. The concrete is received in a series of hoppers which weight out the exact amount, required foi-”a single brick, tile, nr paving slab. Mach hopper then pours its contents into a mould. r l he enamelling mater; d is treated, in a similar fashion, and is added to the moulds when they reach that section of the machine. 'I he materials are then united by a pressure of ft.‘200.000 ilis., alter which the moulds eject the eumploted bricks, at a, rate of almost 700 per minute. r l hat means over a quarter of a million brick's in a day of seven hours. After doing this immense amount of work in the davtime, the current used could lie switched on to light up the town, and having boon m-cil hi this double wav iis price to the consumer and to the fuel or v would, be abnosl cut hi half.

■‘With a number of i Imse machine we euukl'hiltimatcdY supply the who!

of the Dominion with superior building bricks and roofing tiles which no otner district could produce, because they have not the sand and shingle.

BENEFITS TO THE DISTRICT. “If I. mistake not, 71 concluded Mi Paterson, “this one industry alone would employ so many ploplo and bring in such a stream of revenue that Timaru and all the townships throughout tho province would enjoy a prosper!’tv of which even the most sanguine does not dream at the present time. All that I have suggested is already in actual operation in other countries, so nothing insurmountaolc or wildly theoretical is proposed, lhe only question is, whether we arc us interested as thoso who have put those proposals into actual practice; or are we indifferent, more indolent, and more intellectually asleep? I think we have the intelligence, the initiative, and. the enterprise, and all that we need is a start, when the whole programme outlined will gradually take material form, and send South Canterbury along clie road of real progress by leaps and bounds.”